ARIA

Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) is a set of attributes that define ways to make Web content and Web applications (especially those developed with Ajax, JavaScript and more recent web technologies like Bootstrap) more accessible to people with disabilities. For example, ARIA enables accessible navigation landmarks, JavaScript widgets, form hints and error messages, live content updates, and more.

ARIA is a set of special accessibility attributes which can be added to any markup, but is especially suited to HTML. The role attribute defines a specific role for type of object (such as an article, alert, slider or a button). Additional ARIA attributes provide other useful properties, such as a description for a form or the current width of a progressbar. ARIA attributes can also be used to specify active or disabled state for objects (especially buttons).

The aria-hidden attibute which tells the screen-readers if they should ignore the element, should not be confused with the hidden attibute in HTML5 which tells the browser not to display the element.

ARIA is implemented in most popular browsers and screen readers. However, implementations vary and older technologies don't support it well (if at all). Use either "safe" ARIA that degrades gracefully, or ask users to upgrade to newer technology.

Like the W3C WAI-ARIA specification, the official best practices represents a future ideal — a day when authors can rely on consistent ARIA support across browsers and screen readers. The W3C documents provide an in-depth view of ARIA.

For now, web developers implementing ARIA should maximize compatibility. Use best practices docs and examples based on current implementations.

The community needs a complete set of WCAG techniques for WAI-ARIA + HTML, so that organizations can be comfortable claiming their ARIA-enabled content is WCAG compliant. This is important when regulations or policies are based on WCAG.

Blogs

ARIA information on blogs tends to get out of date quickly. Still, there is some great info out there from other developers making ARIA work today.